m. (fr. √ vid, q.v.) knowledge, true or sacred knowledge or lore, knowledge of ritual, [RV.]; [AitBr.]
N. of certain celebrated works which constitute the basis of the first period of the Hindū religion (these works were primarily three, viz. 1. the Ṛg-veda, 2. the Yajur-veda [of which there are, however, two divisions See taittirīya-saṃhitā, vājasaneyi-saṃhitā], 3. the Sāma-veda ; these three works are sometimes called collectively trayī, ‘the triple Vidyā’ or ‘threefold knowledge’, but the Ṛg-veda is really the only original work of the three, and much the most ancient [the oldest of its hymns being assigned by some who rely on certain astronomical calculations to a period between 4000 and 2500 B.C., before the settlement of the Āryans in India; and by others who adopt a different reckoning to a period between 1400 and 1000 B.C., when the Āryans had settled down in the Panjāb]; subsequently a fourth Veda was added, called the Atharva-veda, which was probably not completely accepted till after Manu, as his law-book often speaks of the three Vedas-calling them trayam brahma sanātanam, ‘the triple eternal Veda’, but only once [[xi, 33]] mentions the revelation made to Atharvan and Aṅgiras, without, however, calling it by the later name of Atharva-veda; each of the four Vedas has two distinct parts, viz. 1. Mantra, i.e. words of prayer and adoration often addressed either to fire or to some form of the sun or to some form of the air, sky, wind &c., and praying for health, wealth, long life, cattle, offspring, victory, and even forgiveness of sins, and 2. Brāhmaṇa, consisting of Vidhi and Artha-vāda, i.e. directions for the detail of the ceremonies at which the Mantras were to be used and explanations of the legends &c. connected with the Mantras [see brāhmaṇa, vidhi], both these portions being termed śruti, revelation orally communicated by the Deity, and heard but not composed or written down by men [cf. [IW. 24] &c.], although it is certain that both Mantras and Brāhmaṇas were compositions spread over a considerable period, much of the latter being comparatively modern; as the Vedas are properly three, so the Mantras are properly of three forms, 1. Ṛc, which are verses of praise in metre, and intended for loud recitation; 2. Yajus, which are in prose, and intended for recitation in a lower tone at sacrifices; 3. Sāman, which are in metre, and intended for chanting at the Soma or Moon-plant ceremonies, the Mantras of the fourth or Atharva-veda having no special name; but it must be borne in mind that the Yajur and Sāma-veda hymns, especially the latter, besides their own Mantras, borrow largely from the Ṛg-veda; the Yajur-veda and Sāma-veda being in fact not so much collections of prayers and hymns as special prayer- and hymn-books intended as manuals for the Adhvaryu and Udgātṛ priests respectively [see yajur-veda, sāma-veda]; the Atharva-veda, on the other hand, is, like the Ṛg-veda, a real collection of original hymns mixed up with incantations, borrowing little from the Ṛg and having no direct relation to sacrifices, but supposed by mere recitation to produce long life, to cure diseases, to effect the ruin of enemies &c.; each of the four Vedas seems to have passed through numerous Śākhās or schools, giving rise to various recensions of the text, though the Ṛg-veda is only preserved in the Śākala recension, while a second recension, that of the Bhāṣkalas, is only known by name; a tradition makes Vyāsa the compiler and arranger of the Vedas in their present form: they each have an Index or Anukramaṇī [q.v.], the principal work of this kind being the general Index or Sarvānukramaṇī [q.v.]; out of the Brāhmaṇa portion of the Veda grew two other departments of Vedic literature, sometimes included under the general name Veda, viz. the strings of aphoristic rules, called Sūtras [q.v.], and the mystical treatises on the nature of God and the relation of soul and matter, called Upaniṣad [q.v.], which were appended to the Āraṇyakas [q.v.], and became the real Veda of thinking Hindūs, leading to the Darśanas or systems of philosophy; in the later literature the name of ‘fifth Veda’ is accorded to the Itihāsas or legendary epic poems and to the Purāṇas, and certain secondary Vedas or Upa-vedas [q.v.] are enumerated; the Vedāṅgas or works serving as limbs [for preserving the integrity] of the Veda are explained under vedāṅga below: the only other works included under the head of Veda being the Pariśiṣṭas, which supply rules for the ritual omitted in the Sūtras; in the Bṛhad-āraṇyaka Upaniṣad the Vedas are represented as the breathings of Brahmā, while in some of the Purāṇas the four Vedas are said to have issued out of the four mouths of the four-faced Brahmā and in the Viṣṇu-Purāṇa the Veda and Viṣṇu are identified), [RTL. 7] &c.; [IW. 5]; [24] &c.
N. of the number ‘four’, [VarBṛS.] [Śrutab.]
feeling, perception, [ŚBr.]
= vṛtta (v.l. vitta), [L.] (cf. 2. ).
m. (fr. √ 3. vid) finding, obtaining, acquisition (see su-v°)
property, goods, [ĀśvGṛ.]
vedá m. (perhaps connected with √ 1. ve, to weave or bind together) a tuft or bunch of strong grass (Kuśa or Muñja) made into a broom (and used for sweeping, making up the sacrificial fire &c., in rites), [AV.] MS. [Br.]; [ŚrS.]; [Mn.]
mfn. (for 2. See p. 1017, col. 2) announcing, proclaiming (see bhaga-v°)
n. perception, knowledge, [Nir.]; [MBh.]; [Kāv.] &c. (rarely f(A). )
n. making known, proclaiming, [Rājat.]
n. feeling, sensation, [Yājñ.]; [Śiś.] (with Buddhists one of the 5 Skandhas, [MWB. 109])
védana mfn. finding, procuring (see naṣṭa and pati-v°)
védana n. the act of finding, falling in with (gen.), [MBh.]
the act of marrying (said of both sexes, esp. the marriage of a Śūdra woman with a man of a higher caste; cf. [Mn. iii, 44], and utkṛṣṭa-v°), [Mn.]; [Yājñ.]
the ceremony of holding the ends of a mantle (observed by a Śūdra female on her marriage with a man of a higher caste), [W.]
veda—vatī f. N. of a river, [MBh.]; [Pur.] (cf. vedasinī, vetasinī)
of a beautiful woman (daughter of Kuśa-dhvaja, whose story is told in the Rāmāyaṇa; she became an ascetic, and being insulted by Rāvaṇa in the wood where she was performing her penances, destroyed herself by entering fire, but was born again as Sītā or accord. to other legends, as Draupadī or Lakṣmī), [R.]